Turkish authorities appointed a government trustee to run pro-opposition broadcaster Halk TV, prosecutors said yesterday as police raided its Istanbul office, extending a crackdown on the opposition and prompting fresh concerns over media freedom.
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said its financial crimes unit had conducted an investigation into Halk TV Chairman Cafer Mahiroglu over “bribery, tender-rigging, and laundering of assets derived from crime.”
Prosecutors ordered the detention of 17 people, including Mahiroglu, and 11 have been detained, the statement said, with firms linked to Mahiroglu seized and the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) appointed as trustee.
Mahiroglu is currently outside Turkey and being sought by the authorities.
The channel’s live broadcast was cut at 6:30 am (0330 GMT), after which pre-recorded material began airing. “Hundreds of police” were inside and entry into the premises was not being permitted, it said on its website. A Halk TV programmer said negotiations with the trustee delegation to continue broadcasts had yielded no results.
The move comes days after Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the court-appointed chairman of Turkey’s former main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), publicly criticised Halk TV and Mahiroglu over its coverage. He said the CHP had complained to Turkey’s RTUK television watchdog but no action was taken.
Kilicdaroglu lost the CHP leadership to Ozgur Ozel in 2023, but was reinstated by a court ruling in May amid an unprecedented legal crackdown on the opposition. He has refused to call new party elections, while his rhetoric has become more aligned with the government.
The CHP later criticised yesterday’s raid on Halk TV as a “shameful” example of “systematic pressure” on opposition media.
The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor criticised the move on X, saying that the government was “not happy with controlling 90% of media” and was “aiming for the 100%”.